David Jolkovski/The Jersey JournalThe Jersey City Redevelopment Agency has designated Team Walker as the developer of this empty lot on Communipaw Avenue, future home of a youth center.

A Jersey City nonprofit is one step closer to opening a youth center in the city's Bergen/Lafayette section.

After arguing with Pine Street residents over building a center there, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency has designated Team Walker as the developer of 373-375-377 Communipaw Ave., an empty lot owned by the city.

Pine Street resident Lycel Villanueva said the residents had nothing against Jerry Walker, who founded Team Walker with his brother Jasper.

"We've always been interested in helping him," she said. "We thought what he was doing was right for the community. It just wasn't the right place."

An attorney for Team Walker sent a letter to the city Planning Board May 5 formally withdrawing the application for the Pine Street project.

Jerry Walker could not be reached for comment, but has said in previous interviews that the organization runs its programs out of public schools and has been looking for its own space for about 10 years. The group has about $1 million, including an $882,000 federal Community Development Block Grant for the project.

He had been eyeing a double lot on Pine Street with a vacant house because it's close to School 22 and would serve children in that neighborhood.

The new site isn't far away, at the intersection of Communipaw Avenue and Halladay Street. It's a large open lot that would allow Walker to build a larger center than the one proposed for Pine Street, which would have only offered programming to about 15 students.

"Now he has the opportunity to essentially start from scratch. He could really cater to what the community wants," said Villanueva, whose husband Miles Poindexter suggested the Communipaw site at a November City Council meeting.

While Pine Street residents attended City Council meetings last year to speak against building on their street, dozens of Team Walker supporters also turned out to argue that a center is needed.

Villanueva, an architect and professional planner, said the residents were never opposed to the much-needed youth center, but said it wasn't permitted on Pine Street, which is part of the Morris Canal Redevelopment Zone.

"There's a lot of misinformation about this whole project," Villanueva said. "I think we got vilified in the process because the people didn't know all the information."